The psychological and physiological effects of a socially oriented sensitivity training were evaluated. It is shown that decreased physical distance as well as increased intimacy yields high activation, both in psychological measures (experienced stress) and in pulse frequences. One result (highly significant and replicated in other experiments) was paradoxical: when Ss had to caress the face of a heterosexual vis-a-vis, they reported high experienced stress, but pulse frequences dropped rapidely below the resting pulse. Some suggestions are made to explain these findings. The question arises whether an autonomic somatic process, induced by social Stimulation, but independent of the cognitive coping is responsible for these results.

Summary (Social Situations as Experimental Conditions in Psychopharmacology): To reduce a great variability of drug effects in healthy subjects, stress conditions are used often in pharmacopsychology. However, empirical results show that the desired stress effects are failing. This paper suggests to realize social stress Situations as interactions between subjects, expecting higher challenging effects than experimentator-subject-interactions, usually used in experimental designs. Two experimental studies are reported: the call-upsituation and the group-therapy situation. The experimental effects were measured by changes of pulse-frequencies. The results indicate that in the two situations high and low dosages of tranquilizing drugs lead to comparable (and so predictable) effects only, if a Situation is high challenging for the experimental subjects. The call-up situation, which proves performance, challenges male subjects highly. The emotional or social competence demanding group-therapy situation is a high challenging situation for warnen. It is concluded that no situation is stressing a person generally. Depending from personality characteristics, differential stressor effects appear. Consequences for experiments in pharmacopsychology are discussed.

This project had two goals: (1) to examine the impact of strategy training on memory performance in German and American children, and (2) to search for environmental correlates of individual differences in cognitive processes. Following pretesting, 437 children were divided into training and control groups, with the former receiving training in clustering strategies. Trained children showed sizable strategy maintenance and transfer effects two weeks and six months later. Parents and teachers completed questionnaires about the teaching of strategies and their attributional beliefs about children's academic successes and failures. The differences in strategie behavior and attributions of German and American children were due, in part, to differences in strategy-enriched environments.

Nonverbal communicative behaviours are associated with affective states in a way specific to the individual. This result emerged from longitudinal studies on depressed patients. From the analysis of various nonverbal behaviours it can be concluded that the depressed state is indicated by nonverbal elements in a logical "or-" rather than "and-connection" or in a hierarchical way. It is maintained that the relationship of psychological relevant states (mood) and nonverbal behaviour needs to be studied by intra-individual comparisons to reveal the specifically close relationships effective in everyday communication. With regard to the pragmatic aspect of communication, elements in the nonverbal signalling system seem to possess different levels of generality. However, from decoding studies it can be shown that even very subtle behavioural differences can be detected by an observer. Thus specific signals can become effective in interaction given a familiarity with the idiosyncratic usage.

In accordance with various other studies. the present longitudinal study gave no clues for specific personality variables or traits 01' drug addicts. Personality factors did not allow a valid prediction of the kind 01' th~apy termination. nor were there clear deviations from the norm. Analyzed as a group. the addicts showed only minor changes that appeared over the course of treatment. These results correspond to data reported on alcohol dependency (cf. Wanke 1987). A more differentiated picture is gained when stable and changeable components of personality and analyzed separately. Changeable components are of special relevance for treatment. From the current study these were characteristics of action regulation, that is, activation and impulse control, social interaction, and somatic reactions (sleep disorders, bodily reactions to drug deprivation). For relapse prevention, attention should be given to stable, persistent, problematic components. Persistent suicidal ideas turned out to be one such aspect. Like the differentiation between state and trait anxiety, stable and variable components could also be separated for other domains of personality when they are used to describe the course of treatment. How can personality concepts and instruments for assessment be utilized for treatment? The claim of therapists to predict the outcome of a treatment may be realized for only a delimited period of time. Especially at such critical points as shortly before relapse, a firm prediction might be possible only rarely (Wanke 1987). Lack of predictability could be a warning which, however, can be verified only afterward. According to the current results, one benefit of personality concepts could be to specify targets of change on an individual basis and thus clarify effects of therapeutic interventions. Personality concepts can help patients to better understand their problems and to recognize changes as weil as persistent areas of vulnerability.

Traditionally psychological research had assisted (de lege lata and de lege ferenda) jurisdiction, legislation, and law enforcement. However, the fol1owing three examp1es support the thesis that certain areas of psycho1ogica1 research gain new concepts and hypotheses by considering re1ated juristic thought. First, a developmenta1 study on the judgment about neg1igent damages suggested a three-step deve10pment of the evaluation of neg1igence. That threestep development wou1d contradict Heider's sequence of responsibi1ity levels. Second, a cognitive algebra approach to asses the chi1d's understanding of the duty to compensate the victim for his 1055 caused by a culpab1e actor suggested a two-step deve10pment of understanding that duty. The chi1d of the first deve10pment a1 step wou1d regard giving on1y half compensation of the 10ss as doing his duty to repair damages. Third, the concept of cul pa and the "Strafzumes sungs 1 ehre" in the German juri 5 ti c thought are d i scussed as key concepts for innovating psycho1ogica1 research on a moral algebra. Insofar juristic thought proved to assist psycho1ogica1 theory bui1ding what would make the relation of juristic thought and psycho1ogy a relation of interdependence.